Discussions on Geography and geospatial technologies

The four days of holiday gifts

It is that time of year again, Black Friday is behind us and Cyber Monday is here and everyone is thinking of the holidays to come that get us in the giving mood. To honor this time of year, and to talk about some cool stuff, we will spend this week talking about some of the geotoys we like and may even have. I, clearly, am starting things off with my Jacob Marley impersonation and Barb, Frank and Sue will each take a turn through the week. I am going to harken back to our first holiday gift guide episode of VerySpatialTV and break my selections into three tiers: Stocking stuffer, in a box, and in a big box.

Stocking stuffers

Affordable is good in the current monetary reality, whether because of general economic conditions or trying to dig your way out of grad school debt, so I have a few choices in this category. The first geotoy is the Hugg-A-Planet series that started out with the great plush globe and has extended to include other celestial bodies (Mars, Moon, etc), a plush map of the US, and other great options. For that person in your life that needs a map on the wall, desk, cufflinks…you get the idea, you may want to look at some of the handmade options at etsy. These great gift options are dangerous though because while you start looking for others you will invariably end up with more in your cart for yourself than for others.

In a box

The last couple of years have seen the rise of the in-car nav system, the question of whether they would be replaced by smart phones, and resounding answer of ‘no’. It is clear that, for the majority of folks, a simple interface that lives in their vehicle is the better option. It used to be that when you gave a GPS you were giving a gift that had to be paid for again by the recipient when the maps grew out of date, luckily those days are drawing to a close. TomTom, Garmin, and other manufacturers are now offering units that come with lifetime map updates and traffic updates, just make sure to look for product names that include M or T for maps or traffic.

The big box

This is more of a ‘for us all’ holiday wish. While the Landsat Data Continuity Mission is ongoing with the satellite launching in late 2012 or so, let’s start the discussion of Landsat 9 right now. It would be great (in my opinion) to see the program achieve redundancy so that we wouldn’t be faced daily with concerns of an aged constellation and issues with sensors. If we start the discussion and planning now, by the time it gets to the engineering phase the economy will probably have righted itself.

So those are my thoughts on some of the toys out there that might make the location aware person on your gift list happy. What are you giving this holiday season?